Kemenche

Kemenche (Turkish: kemençe, Persian : کمانچه) or Lyra is a name used for various types of stringed bowed musical instruments originating in the Eastern Mediterranean, particularly in Greece, Armenia, Iran, Turkey, and Azerbaijan.

[2] The name Kemenche derives from the Persian Kamancheh, meaning a "small bow".

[3] The Kemençe of the Black Sea (Turkish: Karadeniz kemençesi), also known as Pontic kemenche or Pontic lyra (Greek: Ποντιακή λύρα), is a box-shaped lute (321.322 in the Hornbostel-Sachs system), while the classical kemençe (Turkish: Klasik kemençe or Armudî kemençe, Greek: Πολίτικη Λύρα) is a bowl-shaped lute (321.321).

Other bowed instruments have names sharing the same Persian etymology include the kamancheh (or Kabak kemane in Turkish), a spike lute (321.31), and the Cappadocian kemane, an instrument closely related to the kemenche of the Black Sea with added sympathetic strings.

Circassians have a similar instrument named the Shikepshine which means horse tail violin.